[SustainableTompkins] Cloth bags for bulk purchases

[Jon Bosak]

[Jan Quarles:]

| As a member of Greenstar, I'll take the initiative to suggest they
| create and sell various sizes of cloth bags for bulk purchases, so
| customers don't unconsciously reach for the plastic bags. These
| bags need to be washable, strong, and sewn in various sizes: i.e.,
| smaller ones for nuts; medium size for granola; larger for apples
| or potatoes.  Greenstar may want to put its logo on them.

Great idea.  Cloth doesn't work well for everything, though -- for
example, cloth bags used for nuts or granola will get pretty
grubby pretty quickly.  So I think this should be extended to a
small variety of sturdy plastic containers as well.  Greenstar
already does a good job of providing glass jars and bottles for
bulk purchases of liquids and gooey stuff, so a couple of
well-chosen plastic containers for things like cereal and nuts
should do it.  And of course the logo could be applied to these,
too.  (If such containers are already there, please forgive my
lack of observation.)

The real challenge will be to extend this concept to the
conventional markets.  Greenstar has "grooved in" proper behavior
around all this to the point where everyone knows what to expect
when someone shows up with their own containers; Wegman's and Tops
and Shur-Save are a different matter.  Beyond the behavioral
aspect, the conventional stores are missing an essential feature
needed to make this work in practice, which is a way to assess
tare weight before a customer container gets refilled with
something.  There are two aspects to this: the provision of scales
throughout the store (fairly sensitive ones, not the clunky kind
used for rough estimates in the produce section), which is going
to be rather expensive, and a way to trust customers to accurately
and honestly record the tare.  I think it's the second aspect
that's going to pose the greatest difficulties.  At Greenstar,
tare is recorded by the honor system; call me cynical, but I have
a hard time seeing how this works in the conventional stores.  And
without a way to assess the tare, reusable containers are a
practical impossibility (ain't no way I'm going to pay for the
weight of the jar every time through!).

Maybe a counter at the entrance where you have your containers
weighed and labeled?  A lot to think about here.

Jon